From the producers of such hits as Four Weddings and A Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and About A Boy,, this titillating romantic comedy spins the genre formula inside out. Although the story was initially conceived by executive producer Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) and director Daisy von Scherler Mayer (Party Girl), it was the zany mastery of screenwriter Tracey Jackson who developed the script into an original, offbeat romp of mishap-laden love.

The idea? To pit love against "this whole notion today of `Spiritualism on one's own terms'," says von Scherler Mayer. "It's a play on `Well yes, let me try and squeeze you in between my yoga instructor, my therapist and the next session with my spiritual guru." Basically, love served up on a New Age platter.

"The inspiration? Shekhar Kapur. The premise was derived from his experience when he first moved to London as a really young guy. He just wanted to go there and meet pretty blonde girls," she notes. "But there was this whole reaction to him. People were sort of held in awe about the whole mystical aspect of where he was from: India."

"This film deals with how much of our culture gets imported throughout the world and this whole distorted reality that evolves from that," she adds. "What's nice about this film is the message of tolerance that plays out particularly at this time. Yes it evolves around romance and it is a raucous sex comedy but the underlying theme is love conquers all and to accept everybody for who and what they are. If you look at the great comedies of the past, a lot of them had a message underneath the humour.  In our case, it helps that we have a gorgeous guy from another country and Heather Graham delivering the message. "

For Graham, delivery was no problem.  "I believe in its message - that people should be free to be themselves. And where else would I get to play a Hindi princess, a porn star, a bride and a teacher all in one film?"

For Mistry, playing Ramu was deciphering the essence of the immigrant experience. Although he had never been to India or New York, he identified with the character's dreams and weaknesses "and I realised it was immaterial where he is from," Mistry says. "For most of the film he is like a fish out of water and a lot of the comedy comes from dealing with the situations he encounters in New York. He just wants to be an actor, a star. He inadvertently achieves that by becoming this guru and that brings all the trappings of fame and fortune that he had always dreamed about." But conscience gets the better of him and Ramu becomes "unsure that he is doing the right thing, capitalising on the American public's appetite for a guru," Mistry adds. Deceiving his devotees is one thing, betraying Sharonna is another. The lifestyle may be lavish, continues Mistry, but it's an empty victory and not worth the price of  "endangering the one thing that gives his life meaning: Love."

On the flipside, Marisa Tomei's Lexi comes from fortune and the social circles of fame, but jumps from one therapy guru to the next hoping to fill a deep void of unhappiness. "The film is about what makes you happy and Lexi is not happy," says Tomei. "She starts out spoiled but winds up getting turned on spiritually by this guru.  In the end she's disciplined, dedicated and finds peace." Lexi's soul-searching journey treads a similar path as the others - "wonderful but not necessarily the journey expected," she adds.

"A guru leads you to the Truth and changes your interior landscape," says Jackson. In Lexi's case, "she has spent her life giving away pieces of her power to others. Then Ramu comes along and she hands it all over to him. In the end he helps her see what she did for him, but she also discovers her truth and the Guru in herself."

As for Ramu, "he reluctantly becomes a guru for others and eventually for himself. In a sense, he was one from the beginning but he just didn't realise it. It's evident from his first line: `Dance is like love. You move your feet to the beat of your heart'."

That philosophy is what leapt off the page, literally and figuratively for director von Scherler Mayer. Love for the script turned into a dance spectacle with moves the Travolta of Grease has never seen: Bollywood style.

"From the moment I read it, I visualised it… just one of those amazing magical experiences that rarely happens to a director," she says. "I immediately knew what I could do with it. I had done Party Girl on a shoestring budget and had dreamed of a more expansive production, broader in content and scope. This was it - `The Opportunity'."

Enter Choreographer Mary Ann Kellogg. First step, "emersion : Bollywood vs. Hollywood musical. With Bollywood, they (Indian choreographers) take the `30s musicals of Fred and Ginger and re-invent the form. What we've done is take that re-invention and re-invented it here," Kellogg says. "What we kept is their way of telling the story through gesture and a lot of folk steps. I actually applied several of their storytelling forms of dance."

Visually stunning, those forms are "Unique. They tier their dance, which looks very rich in the frame," she continues. "You have one set of dancers in the front, one set in the middle and one set in the back. And the actor is always looking into the camera, which you would never see Fred Astaire do.

He would always be looking at Ginger" as Travolta looked at Olivia Newton-John in Grease.

There are four eye-popping numbers and in one Mistry sings in Hindi. In the finale, Kellogg used about 50 dancers from numerous universities, all members of South Asian bangra dance groups. For the prince and princess, Kellogg used two modern dancers from New York.

"In the traditional Hollywood musicals of the `30s, there would be at least six weeks time to design, construct and rehearse the musical numbers before principle photography began. Plus, the music would be tailor made for the numbers," she notes. "Today prep time is almost non-existent. We had two days to shoot the material on video and then we shot it in full costume on film. It was a lucky break."

Lucky maybe, but not a seamless feat for Costume Designer Michael Clancy. "We had to make all the costumes for 50 dancers (for the finale). It's not like going out and buying 30 white t-shirts. And we ran into the same problem as Mary Ann. There just was no prep time for these kind of production numbers," says Clancy. "We were literally sewing beads on costumes on the back of the truck while everything else was in production. On one dress rehearsal they had to shoot the next day. That morning I needed Valium!!" quipped Clancy.  "Visions of bugle beads popping off right and left had made me a wreck. It was a wild ride to the very end." But it was worth every angst-ridden moment. "I love this whole mad Bollywood scene. What's really wonderful about working on a picture like this is the colour and sparkle of it - something where you would normally want to `hold back.' But with this, it's the more the merrier."

The Guru was filmed in and around New York City and New Delhi, India. Production began April 18 and wrapped June 20. The company filmed its New York scenes in Times Square, Chinatown, Midtown, the meat packing district, Harlem, the Upper and Lower East Side, NoHo, Central Park, Hunts Point (155^th Street), Queens, Brooklyn, the George Washington Bridge and the New York City Subway. Lexi's luxuriant penthouse apartment was shot in NoHo. Ramu's walkup apartment was set in Queens. Scenes for the elaborate Hindi dream dance sequence and Ramu's Broadway debut were filmed in Harlem at the ornate, historical United Palace Church on 175^Th and Broadway, also known as Reverand Ike's. Sharonna's wedding was filmed in Brooklyn's Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The company decided to sidestep any filming on a studio lot. "You just can't replicate the atmosphere of New York City in a studio," notes producer and Working Title Co-Chairman Tim Bevan. "It was that important to film on the streets of New York."

the main team
daisy von scherler - director The grand-daughter of famed Hollywood screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer (To Be or Not to Be, Midnight and Desire), Daisy von Scherler Mayer grew up 'backstage" in New York City where her parents were actress, Sasha von Scherler, and writer, Paul Avila Mayer (creator of Ryan's Hope). Working behind the scenes at the New York Shakespeare Festival as a teenager, von Scherler Mayer went onto graduate with a degree in theatre and history from Wesleyan University.  After college, she directed contemporary interpretations of classic plays such as Euripides Electra, Shakespeare's The Tempest and Two Gentleman in Verona.  Her feature film directing debut was the critically acclaimed 1995 hit Party Girl, which she also co-wrote with partner Harry Birckmayer.  Party Girl starred Parker Posey and her mother.  The success of Party Girl also led to a FOX television series. Since then, von Scherler Mayer has been busy writing and directing films.  She directed Madeline, which was based on Ludwig Bemelmans' classic children's books about the escapades of the little redheaded French girl.  She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband.
tim bevan and eric fellner - producers They are the co-chairmen of Working Title, Europe's leading film production company.  Together, they have made more than 40 films grossing over two billion dollars world-wide.  Their films have won four Academy Awards, for Elizabeth, Fargo and Dead Man Walking, 18 British Academy Awards, including Billy Elliot and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and won prestigious prizes at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. Bevan and Fellner have a long-term relationship with writer Richard Curtis and actor Hugh Grant, with whom they have collaborated on their three most succcessful films - all romantic comedies - Four Weddings and A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, with Notting Hill holding the record for the highest grossing British film world-wide.   Curtis also wrote the screenplay for the hit comedy, Bean, starring Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant stars in the recently released About A Boy. The Coen brothers also have a long association with Working Title, having made five films with the company including the Academy-award winning Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother, Where Art Thou ?, The Big Lebowski and The Man Who Wasn't There which won Joel Coen the Best Director prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, WT² was formed, headed by Natascha Wharton, to produce lower budget films.  It's first film, Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, became an international commercial and critical hit.  The division has since made Ali G Indahouse, which has been a huge success in the UK, Long Time Dead and My Little Eye. Adapting successful and original books is high on Working Title's manifesto.  Stephen Frears transferred Nick Hornby's High Fidelity to the screen, and currently on release is an adaptation of Hornby's About A Boy, directed by Paul and Chris Weitz starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette and Rachel Weisz.  Other notable adaptations include John Madden's Captain Corelli's Mandolin starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, and the children's classic The Borrowers. Working Title has recently released 40 Days & 40 Nights starring Josh Hartnett and currently have two films in production. Johnny English directed by Peter Howitt and starring Rowan Atkinson who plays an efficiency challenged British MI7 agent, with John Malkovich and Natalie Imbruglia, and Ned Kelly starring Heath Ledger as the legendary Australian outlaw.  Directed by Gregor Jordan, the film also stars Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts and Orlando Bloom. Working Title has a five year deal with Universal Pictures and StudioCanal providing the resources and distribution structure to allow them to retain creative autonomy producing predominantly European films while enjoying full studio backing and world-wide distribution.
tracey jackson - screenwriter She began her career as an actress studying with Dame Judith Anderson, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and a decade with Herbert Berghof at the HB Studios in New York. But she left acting for writing when roles became few and far between.  The Guru is her first produced feature, but Jackson has had a prolific career writing for television -- creating pilots, movies of the week and the Fox series Babes.  Working Title asked Jackson, who has a two-picture commitment, to collaborate with co-producer Shekhar Kapur on his idea about an Indian immigrant in search of the American dream who winds up as a sex guru. A self proclaimed Indofile, Jackson had just completed the screenplay Ashes to Ashes for Goldie Hawn set in India, and has just begun her third film set in India, a romantic comedy for Greene Street Productions.  She is also collaborating on a project with Aamir Khan, star of Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India.  Her upcoming projects also include the screenplays Into The Frying Pan, Party of Four and a remake of the Claude Lelouche film One For All. Jackson teaches a weekly screenwriting class at HB Studios.  She is also a produced playwright.
mary ann kellogg - choreographer She has more than 30 years of experience in dance with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company in New York, the Atlanta Ballet and the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, working in all mediums, from film to theater, television to music. Her film credits include A Night at the Roxbury, Clueless, Look Who's Talking, Leap of Faith and SuperStar, which brought her an American Choreographers Awards nomination in 2000.  Her television credits include The Gilmore Girls, 7^th Heaven, Will & Grace, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch and many years as choreographer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In theater, she worked with directors Martha Clark and David Gordon and composer Phillip Glass.  Her choreography for music videos includes Beck's Sex Laws.  Kellogg graduated from the California Institute Of The Arts with a BFA in Dance and is the recipient of the U.C. Irvine Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer in Dance Award.   She lectures on the history of dance in film at USC and sits on the board of directors of the Academy of Dance on Film in Hollywood.
david carbonara - composer He has composed a number of compelling film scores, including David O. Russell's award-winning film Spanking the Monkey, Nick Smith's Monumental and James Ryan's award-winning The Young Girl and the Monsoon.  He has scored two French produced films for director Amos Kolleck, Queenie in Love and Fast Food, Fast Woman, which had a stand-out premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Also internationally, he composed a contemporary orchestral score for Brazilian director Ana Carolina's Amelia. For television he scored the ABC pilot Elizabeth Street for executive producer Martin Scorsese. He has also composed music for theater at the Atlantic Theater Company, Playwright's Horizon and American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. A former jazz and touring trombonist David Carbonara has a bachelor degree in film scoring from the Berklee College of Music.

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